Luck of the Alward's...

The good news is...the PET scan didn't show anymore unexpected surprises. Yay!! So after an extremely long day yesterday (blood work, appointments with medical oncologist, nutritionist,social worker,the CT simulation, and our nurse navigator), we looked forward to a "simple procedure" to insert his feeding PEG this a.m. Well, ain't nothing ever easy when it comes to Ken. The nurse came to get me from the waiting area and brought me to a special area to allow the doctor to talk with me privately. He was very sorry, but there seemed to be some bleeding that would require a CT scan, and then we would talk again. After the scan, the doctor brought the beautiful full color pictures of the tear he had accidentally made in Ken's esophagus as he was retracting the tube. The bleeding was  controlled, and the tear had not perforated the esophagus, however, there appeared to be some minor infiltrates in his lung that would require some antibiotics and NO FOOD today, and an overnight stay for observation to make sure that he didn't develop pneumonia. Really? Seriously? C'mon...where's the camera?

We should be able to get Ken home tomorrow morning. Let's just hope he doesn't fall out of bed and sprain something! I am heading back to the hospital with a nicotine patch to get him through the day (he didn't use one this a.m. because we were supposed to be home by ten o'clock). It is getting harder to keep his weight gain on track when the doctors keep depriving him of food, but we gotta go with the flow. For now.

Nothing is set in stone as to the official start of the festivities, however, we have a tentative start date of Feb. 14th for chemo's first strike. Oh yeah, we were told initially that the chemo once a week would be about four hours. Surprise, it will be eight hours after you add in the extra time needed for fluids and anti-nausea goodies. So, one day a week will be extra, extra long. Thankfully, the Kindle is loaded with books, games, t.v. shows, and the like to keep our boy entertained. We will try to keep y'all updated as dates are finalized and we swing into action. In the meantime, we bask in the joy of that "no surprises" PET scan.

Paula